Ella Ruby's Birth Story

This story really has to start from the very beginning of my pregnancy with Ella. I had a pretty uneventful and normal pregnancy until 12 weeks. One night while at the dinner table, I started bleeding heavily. Danny and I were in complete shock. I thought I was having a miscarriage and was devastated. Danny, on the other hand, knew that everything was going to be fine......much like the scare we had in the beginning with sweet Emily. I remember our dear friends rushing over to take care of Emily so we could go to the hospital, and me kissing her goodbye thinking we were not going to be giving her a sibling. We learned at the hospital, that our baby was fine, but that I had a condition called placenta previa. It is where the placenta is covering the opening of the cervix, and can cause bleeding and if the placenta does not move out of the way in time for delivery, it is an automatic c-section. We were overjoyed that the baby was okay, but worried as my bleeding continued for another month. I prayed everyday for the bleeding to stop because I knew it would get serious fast if it didn't. I could also hemorrhage at any time, causing harm to the baby and I. We lived on pins and needles for the rest of my pregnancy.

With Emily, we had an all natural hospital birth with an OB. While it went good, there were many things we would have done differently. Before I found out about my placenta previa, I was extremely interested in seeing a midwife for care and having the baby in our home. Because previa is high risk, I did see two OBs throughout the first half of my pregnancy. Previa is one of the top two conditions where a c-section is the only way for delivery. If the placenta is birthed before the baby, it would cause a hemorrhage and put mother and baby at a severe risk. Even though our OBs were great, and on top of my previa situation, Danny and I both felt that we were just over the "medical" feel for our pregnancy. We wanted something more out of it, and knew there was a large chance my placenta would move out of the way before I delivered. We prayed that my placenta would move so we would be able to have a home birth with our amazing midwife. I did everything in my power to "help" my placenta move. I prayed, took herbal pills to help tone my uterus, visualized it moving away, used positive affirmations and finally, when I literally could do nothing else myself, I left it in God's hands. Only then was I at peace. I knew if my baby and I were fine, and a c-section was to be written by Him into my journey, then I would be at complete peace with it. I would embrace my path no matter what it looked like, and even if it was not the path I had hoped for. Many paths I have been given aren't the ones I would have drawn out for myself, but the good Lord knows exactly what He's doing because every single one of them made me into the person I am now. I trusted Him with this path as well.

At 17 weeks pregnant, my bleeding had stopped. That was also around the time we made the move to Abilene and had our first appointment with our midwife. We met with her, told her our story, and fell in love with her and the process for caring for our sweet baby. She spoke to us as if we were completely capable of making choices on our own (what a concept!) and we didn't have to hear for the millionth time to "remember to heat up your lunch meat!" or have to tell my entire pregnancy history each appt like I had to do with my OBs. She knew us extremely well, LOVED Emily (Emily was involved in every single appointment and loved going to see "Miss Carol"), her goal was our goal.....bringing our baby into the world as safely, naturally, and peacefully as possible. The care from our midwife is something I wish ALL mothers could experience. It is absolutely incredible and you are never just another number, and neither is the baby. Before Carol would check on Ella, she would talk to her through my belly and tell her what she was doing. After every appt Carol prayed with us. It was just the most amazing care I could ever ask for. I could go on for days about it. But anyways, at 22 weeks we had decided to get an ultrasound to check if my placenta had moved. It hadn't moved completely, and just a tip of it was covering the cervix. This was pretty devastating news to me because I knew most previa cases moved by 20 weeks if they were going to resolve. Danny and Carol were still extremely hopeful and that encouraged me. We had one more ultrasound at 37 weeks to check.......it had moved!!!! We were in the clear, Ella was no longer at risk, and we were going to be able to bring her into the world the safest way we felt possible. We were over the moon!

So, with that said, here is Ella Ruby's home birth story......

I was 39 weeks and 3 days along and that evening I felt a couple weird twinges. I told Danny I felt funny and just had a feeling something was up. I started baking a few things that I wanted ready for my birth team, and cleaned up the house a bit just in case I went to labor. Funny thing about a home birth, everyone comes over to your house instead of you just going to the hospital so I wanted the house to be as in order as we could get with a toddler running around ;) We went to sleep around 1AM and at 5AM I woke up with contractions. I thought 5AM was crazy because that's the exact time I woke up having contractions with Emily too. These were already much stronger than what I woke to with Em though. I woke Danny up and called my mom. I've never had false labor with either labor, so I had a feeling this was it. I called our midwife and told her I thought my contractions were lasting 20 seconds long. She said it sounded like dehydration contractions, so she told me to drink a lot of water and call her back in an hour if they hadn't gone away. Danny didn't think they were only 20 seconds long, so we downloaded an app to time them. Sure enough, they were about a minute long and 3-4 minutes apart. (Looking back now, this is the stage I topped out at with Emily, they never got any closer together. This labor, they started there and never got any closer together either, even during transition and the pushing stage, which is an amazing rest for pushing). I called Carol back and she said she would be on her way!

We started getting the room ready, getting dressed, calling the photographer, and timing more contractions. I was up doing things the whole time and only stopped when I had a contraction. Due to that, I didn't think I was that far along in labor. I knew Emily was going to be up around 8:30, and I knew my mom probably wouldn't make the 4 hour drive in time. So I called my cousin, who by some amazing act of God was off work that day, and so was her husband. I asked her if she could come over and watch Emily because I was in labor. She said of course and asked how far apart were my contractions. I told her about 3-4 minutes and she said "Ok I'm up, I'm coming over." Haha! It was such a complete blessing that she was able to be there. Right before Carol arrived at 7am, was when I decided I could no longer walk around and I needed to lay in the bed. She came in and it was like an even more so calm came over me. She checked me and I was already at 6CM! She said "We need to start deciding how you want to have the baby (positioning) because I've had mothers go from a 6 to a 10 in 10 minutes!" I was still in shock I was so close, and decided that I was going to birth by leaning over my bed. Seemed like an easy transition since I was already in bed, I'd just flip around to push. Having her in the bathtub was also an option, but during labor I had absolutely no desire to get in the water. I'm a land birther I guess, ha! I labored on the toilet for a bit because, just like with Emily, I felt like I had to poop. I also threw up and lost my mucus plug around that time, so I knew it was almost time! I labored in bed with Danny for another hour and a half. I visualized my contractions, breathed the pain away, visualized Ella moving towards the birth canal, and just completely turned into myself. These contractions were painful, but, just like with Em, I was not on my death bed by any means and they were definitely manageable.

I began to feel the need to push so I told Carol, and we all got into our spots. I pushed as contractions came every 3-4 minutes. The breaks my body gave me with those minutes were priceless! These pushes with Ella were a lot more intense but much more effective than they were with Emily solely because of positioning. I was laying on my back with Em, and I was squatting, working with gravity with Ella. I would push and then sit back down on the floor to wait for another contraction. I could feel Ella moving down the birth canal.....it was incredible. When I would push, her head would crown and then go back up. This same thing happened with Emily and it was discouraging. I was trying and pushing so hard but she kept going back in! Danny, Carol, and our photographer, Karyn, were saying things to encourage me, and it was a big help. I pushed for about 30 minutes and then I looked up and saw that Emily had just come into the room. I was ELATED to see her and we just loved and kissed on each other. She gave me the strength I needed to go on. I needed to birth her little sissy! With those kisses, it's like Emily knew those were our last moments of a family of three, because with the next contraction, I pushed Ella's head out far enough where it stayed out and didn't go back in. I pushed another time and her head was out!! We heard what sounded like a tiny cat meowing, but it was our sweet girl! With one more push her body came out and Carol handed her to me from between my legs. I cradled her little warm body as I watched Danny and Emily's faces light up in awe of this little miracle. We were all so excited! Everyone helped me turn around to sit on the bed and we just starred at Ella. She was perfect! I had to check to make sure she was a girl, and she was :) I delivered the placenta, Carol gave me a couple homeopathic things to help with bleeding, and I watched as Ella latched on to nurse.

We did it......we were a family of four! Emily said she smelled like bananas and peaches! Haha! We all snuggled in bed for a couple of hours just loving on baby Ella. Then Carol did a newborn check and she weighed 7lbs 2oz, was 20 1/2 inches long, and had a 13.5 inch head. Perfect all around! My mom came in to see us and we were SO excited to see her! My cousin, Cherish, was also so sweet and made sure I was drinking water and eating something. With Emily I had a second degree tear, but with Ella I just had a "nick" that didn't even require stitches. I know this was due to positioning and letting my body do most of the work. With Em, I pushed for far too long (2 hours) in that same awful position and that's why I tore. It's amazing to me that I can compare my natural hospital birth with my natural home birth and see why things happened in the hospital the way they did. Interesting :)

It was just such a perfect morning to be born! Ella was born at 9AM after a flawless four hour labor at home. This was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives and we would absolutely choose this route again in a heartbeat. This is birth and I'm so grateful we were given this path to take. I pray by sharing our story, that it inspires others to open that door to learning more about having midwife care, natural birthing, and/or a home birth. Our society as a whole fears birth and has turned it into a very medical process when it does not need to be in most cases. If you have a low risk pregnancy, you are statistically safer delivering with a midwife. It was the safest option for us and we risked absolutely nothing by choosing it. I pray more women gain their voices through stories like this and stand up for what they want out of the birthing of their child. Many have called us brave for choosing this, but I don't think we were brave at all. I trusted my body, and our midwife, and knew we would have handled anything that came our way. Along with Emmy's birth, this was the most empowering moment of my life. With the support of my amazing doula husband, we brought a perfect baby girl into this world, trusted my body, and rocked a home birth!

Our amazing photographer, Karyn of In Bloom Photography (inbloomimages.com), captured the entire labor/birth. We are so grateful to her and we will cherish this birth story slideshow forever! Grab the tissues :) http://www.smilebox.com/playBlog/4e4441354d6a63334d44493d0d0a&blogview=true